Accidents & Disasters – Weekly Newsletter for March 1-7, 2011

HYDERABAD – Two people were killed and two injured Monday when police opened fire to quell violent protests against a controversial thermal power plant in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, police said.

AIZAWL – Mizoram Police arrested a postmaster who was fleeing to neighbouring Myanmar with Rs.13.50 lakh meant to be disbursed for work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), police said here Monday.

CHRISTCHURCH – Five-month-old Baxtor Gowland who was named the youngest victim of the Christchurch earthquake was laid to rest Monday, a media report said.

Gowland was born Sep 17 last year, the New Zealand Herald reported.
Last week, he was named as the youngest confirmed victim of the 6.3 strength quake that hit this New … Read the original article on Gaea Times at : Youngest victim of New Zealand quake laid to rest.

La Paz, Feb 28 (IANS/EFE) Nearly 800 Bolivian families became homeless after intense rains caused 250 homes to collapse in the capital city of La Paz, but there have been no reports of any casualties, an official said.

JODHPUR – A manager of a firm which allegedly manufactured the contaminated IV fluids responsible for the deaths of at least 12 pregnant women at a government hospital here was detained in Indore town of Madhya Pradesh Sunday, police said.

A team of Jodhpur police officers who went to Indore to probe the case detained … Read more >>>.

NEW DELHI – Hours after celebrating their tenth wedding anniversary, a wife was smothered to death by her husband who was tired of their constant quarrels and fights, police said Sunday. The man has been arrested.

GHAZIABAD – Police Sunday arrested four businessmen from Ghaziabad for taking bets on the India-England World Cup cricket match and recovered around Rs.150,000 from them along with a cache of communication equipment.

In the raid conducted Sunday evening, the police also recovered a router equipped with a broadband connection with their betting counterparts in Dubai, …. Source : Gaea News Network.

KOLKATA – A huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from a pump house in an agricultural field in West Bengal’s Burdwan district, police said.

“Acting on a tip off, we raided Zahid Sheikh’s pump house at Ketugram and recovered 11 firearms, four pistols, two muskets, 60 box bombs, 40 kg of gunpowder, four …. Original article : Huge cache of arms recovered in Bengal.

KOLKATA – Nearly 200 imported live cartridges were found on the banks of a roadside pond in West Bengal’s North 24 Paraganas district Sunday, police said.

“Nine cases, each containing 20 rounds of imported bullets of different types, were recovered from an abandoned packet dumped on the bank of a pond near Rajarhat in the …. Read the original article : here.

NEW DELHI – The question papers of an all-India examination for posts of 375 assistant administrative officers in the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) were leaked, police said Sunday. A youth, allegedly selling them for Rs.5 lakh each, was arrested.

KOLKATA – The engine and 11 compartments of the Puri-bound Neelachal Express derailed Sunday in Orissa after it hit a road roller that had entered the railway track at an unmanned level crossing. The road roller driver was critically injured.

NEW DELHI – A Delhi court Tuesday sent Lalit Bhanot and V.K. Verma, former high ranking officials of the Commonwealth Games (CWG) Organising Committee, to 14 days’ judicial custody in connection with financial lapses in a contract with a Swiss company.

PANCHKULA – A woman and her one-and-a-half-year-old daughter were killed and her husband and nine-year-old son injured after a reversing bus mowed them down while they were asleep here early Tuesday, said the police.

PATNA – Four children in this Bihar capital were injured Tuesday when a crude bomb kept in a dustbin exploded, police said.

The incident took place near Gandhi Maidan. The children — who have been admitted to a hospital where their condition was stated to be stable — were playing near the dustbin.
… Read the original article on Gaea Times at : Four children injured in Patna explosion.

NEW DELHI – Hardline Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani was stopped at the Delhi airport Tuesday by Delhi Police personnel who took him for questioning in connection with a money laundering case, police said.

“Geelani was to board a flight to Srinagar when Delhi Police stopped him and took him to a Special …. Source article on Gaea Times at : Geelani stopped at Delhi airport.

AHMEDABAD – A special court here Tuesday sent to the gallows 11 people and gave life imprisonment to 20 others for the February 2002 burning of a train coach in Gujarat’s Godhra town, in which 59 people were killed triggering a communal frenzy that claimed an estimated 1,000 lives in the state.

SRINAGAR – An ex-army major, wanted for the 1996 disappearance and murder of a lawyer and rights activist, has surfaced in California and reportedly said the Al Qaeda is present in Jammu and Kashmir – a claim strongly denied by the authorities here who are now planning to seek his extradition.

CHRISTCHURCH – The toll in the devastating earthquake in New Zealand’s second largest city of Christchurch rose to 155, a media report said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the government has launched a probe into why the Canterbury Television (CTV) building collapsed in last Tuesday’s 6.3 magnitude quake where many bodies are still thought be lying buried in …. Source : New Zealand quake toll reaches 155.

AHMEDABAD – A special court here Tuesday sent to the gallows 11 people and gave life imprisonment to 20 others for the February 2002 burning of a train coach in Gujarat’s Godhra town that killed 59 people and triggered a communal frenzy, which claimed an estimated 1,000 lives in the state.

AHMEDABAD – A special court Tuesday sentenced 11 people to death and 20 to life imprisonment for setting a train coach on fire in Gujarat’s Godhra town in February 2002. The Godhra train burning — which claimed 59 lives — triggered a communal frenzy in the state in which 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed.
…. Read the original article : 11 get death for Godhra train burning, 20 sentenced to life.

San Juan, March 1 (IANS/EFE) A group of Puerto Rican music stars Monday denounced

the crime wave sweeping the Caribbean island, where this weekend a hail of bullets took the lives of two new victims at a crowded concert.
Merengue singer Elvis Crespo told a press conference of his “pain and sorrow” for the … Read more »»».

LUCKNOW – Goods worth around Rs.50 lakh were gutted when a fire broke out in a wholesale grain market governed by the State Agriculture Produce and Marketing Board in Uttar Pradesh’s Mainpuri town, police said. There were no casualties.

The fire engulfed around 28 establishments of the Mainpuri Mandi Samiti in Kotwali Shehar area, following … Read more >>>.

COPENHAGEN – A Danish ship with seven crew members on board has been captured by pirates off the coast of Somalia, Denmark’s foreign ministry said Monday evening.

The captured ship is said to be carrying a family of five, including three children aged 12 to 16, their parents, and two other adult helpers, Xinhua reported … Original source on Gaea Times at : Danish ship taken hostage by Somali pirates.

Dubai, Feb 28 (IANS/WAM) Dubai customs have arrested two people who were travelling with 51 counterfeit creadit cards worth AED 1 million ($270,000).

The counterfeit cards were recovered Sunday from an Asian passenger who intended to smuggle them for use in the UAE market, Ali Almaghwai, Senior Manager of Airport Passenger Operation Department, said.
… Read the original article on Gaea Times at : Dubai customs bust credit card racket.

NEW DELHI – Former communications minister A. Raja was Tuesday exempted from going from Tihar Jail to court for hearings in the spectrum scam. He will attend the trial through video-conference.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special judge O.P. Saini said proceedings shall be conducted through video-conferencing from the prison Thursday. Raja would not have …. Source : Gaea News Network.

ALLAHABAD – At least 20 people, including policemen, were injured here Tuesday when lawyers and district officials clashed and then fought pitched battles with police.

Tension gripped Colonelganj area when a verbal duel triggered fighting between hundreds of lawyers and employees of the chief development office, Deputy Inspector General of Police Ram Kumar said. … Read more : 20 injured as lawyers, officials clash.

AHMEDABAD – A special court Tuesday sent to the gallows 11 people and gave life imprisonment to 20 others for the February 2002 burning of a train coach in Gujarat’s Godhra town that killed 59 radical Hindu activists and triggered a communal frenzy claiming 1,000 lives in the state.

NEW DELHI – Describing piracy as an international menace”, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Tuesday warned Somalian hijackers of a ship with Indians on board not to harm those in their captivity.